Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/243

 BIRDS Derby, in whose magnificent collection they were preserved till they passed by bequest to the custody of the city of Liverpool in 1851. Duck decoying is now almost extinct in Lancashire. In former days it was carried on in several localities ; but Hale, on the Mersey, the seat of the Ireland-Blackburnes, is the only place where a decoy still continues to be worked. It is provided with five pipes, and has been operated for over 150 years. The chief species that are captured in it are mallard and teal, with a fair proportion of wigeon in most years. Fowlers, on the other hand, are numerous, and are successful in securing every season thousands of scoter, scaup, mallard, curlews, geese, and dunlins by means of douker or fly-nets. The former are suspended a foot or two over the birds' feeding grounds between tides, in diving down to which they get entangled by the neck and drowned in the rising water. The latter, often of great length and some four feet in height, are set on the sands athwart the track of the birds hastening to their feeding banks from which the sea has just retreated. Vast numbers of teal and snipe are also taken in horsehair snares, known as ' panties,' set in lone spots in grassy marshes, and on prepared and baited places when the ground is snow-covered. The ignoble skylark-fowler employs the usual clap-net. Dr. Leigh's History of Lancashire, which contains numerous quaint observations on natural history, has the following interesting note on the ' fowling ' of mallard without their capture : ' but the most remarkable thing of the Wild Ducks is the way of feeding them at Bold in Lancashire. Great quantities of these breed in the summer season in Pits and Ponds within the Demesne, which probably may entice them to come into the Moat near the Hall, which a person accustomed to them perceiving, he beats with a stone on a hollow wood vessel ; the Ducks answer to the sound, and come quite round him upon an Hill adjoining to the Water. He scatters corn amongst them, which they take with as much Quietness and Familiarity as Tame ones ; when fed they take their flight to the Rivers, Meers, and Salt-marshes.' The latest list of birds enumerated as British contains 475 species ; but of these 72 have been disallowed as not sufficiently authenticated. Those, therefore, with a good title to the designation number only 403. Of this total 269 are entered in the following list as having been observed in Lancashire, so that only 134 have not yet favoured us by residence or visit. Of the 269 Lancashire birds, 136 nest with us as residents (93), or as summer visitors (43). The majority, just over a half (69), of these are passerine birds, while larine, limicoline, picarian, and accipitrine species form the bulk of the remainder. Winter sojourners or migrants making a short stay on their autumn and spring passages number jj : 46 being anserine or limicoline. The balance of 56 are stragglers and occasional visitors, the greater number (48) belonging to anserine, larine, and limicoline species. 1. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, hinn. 3. Redwing. Turdus iliacus, J n. Locally, Stormcock, Shirley. A common winter and spring visitor, fre- Common throughout the county, but more quenting lower grounds than the fieldfare, abundant year by year. Often frequents shrub- beries and orchards throughout the winter. 4. Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn. 2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn. An autumn and winter visitor, often in large Met with everywhere and apparently increas- flocks in the Mersey Valley and on the lower ing in numbers. Fells. 191